Border Crossing: Kotpad Weaves

The Kotpad adivasi weavers have managed to keep both tribal and urban consumers happy. Will the good times last?

On a cold winter evening, I stepped into the Kotpad adivasi textiles stall displaying shawls and saris in white and red, replete with animal and bird motifs at the Dastkari Haat Samiti Mela at Dilli Haat. Far removed from their traditional adivasi haats in Bastar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, were National Awardee-couple Jema and Goverdhan Panika.

I was fascinated by the sophistication of the textiles and intrigued that they attracted both the adivasi and the urban consumer.

How did this hitherto-insulated vibrant textile tradition of Koraput transpose itself to these distant urban settings? How are the weavers handling these varied markets and consequently, the altered design template?